The September, 2019 issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership publication has Mike Schmoker beating the drum again. What about? How we’re wasting our time and effort in average classrooms chasing after the novel instead of relying on known, research-based strategies.

H.P. Lovecraft’s Shoggoth…but I call “EdTech Eldritch Powers” wasting time in America’s schools

Mike Schmoker says:

When I tour schools and classrooms with on-site administrators, we never lament the possible absence of instructional technology, personalized-learning strategies, or other popular (but largely unproven) “innovations.” (Source: ASCD)

Gee, I have to revise that sentence. Put another way (because that HAS to be the most awkward sentence ever), Mike Schmoker says:

The absence of popular innovations in today’s classrooms never saddens me. Those unproven innovations include instructional technology, personalized-learning strategies and others. (Revision of Mike Schmoker’s writing, how bold is that)

For him, it is a matter of research, not passion:

We note the paucity of authentic reading and writing activities, even in courses where they should predominate. And we bemoan the near absence of the most critical elements of effective teaching, such as quick, frequent “checks for understanding,” which can double or triple the success rate on daily lessons. 

The ubiquity of these poor practices is made evident by decades of classroom observation research (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Good & Brophy, 1997). They amount to “hundreds of hours of wasted class time” every year, in the great majority of schools (Kane & Steiner, 2019). For researchED’s Eric Kalenze (2014), these findings constitute an educational system that is “upside down”—in which the most potent, proven practices are the least implemented, even as ineffective, time-wasting practices are astonishingly common.

For Schmoker, the following is missing or so seldom used as to be absent:

• Checks for understanding –> Double or triple the success rate on daily lessons
• Reading, discussion, writing assignments–> Affect student learning
• Clear, student-friendly learning targets that clarify how the target will be assessed–>higher rates of success on daily lessons
• Compelling introductions for each lesson–>Make learning relevant to students
• Circulate while students practice before moving onto the next step
• Most potent, proven practices are least implemented–> Ineffective, time-wasting

“Put simply, ensuring that every child attains a baseline level of proficiency in reading and mathematics does more to create equal opportunities in a digital world than can be achieved by expanding or subsidizing access to high-tech devices and services.” As cited here

When I re-read Schmoker, Hattie, Fullan, I realize that we are back to ensuring teachers know how to teach reading, writing and arithmetic. Children need not learn edtech, rather they must use technology to do what Dr. Sonny Magana describes in his T3 framework.

Here’s my Wakelet on Dr. Magana’s work if you want to explore more deeply:

Loving the Unproven Innovations

For my entire career, I have done my best to facilitate the adoption of popular, unproven innovations like instructional technology. In my work as a person who facilitates professional learning, I see less time left to experiment and try unproven instructional technology approaches. Instead, I find myself lamenting the loss of time, time-wasted doing things in classrooms that failed to accelerate student learning.

Schmoker urges us all to focus on high-leverage strategies, ensuring that we, as leaders and professional learning facilitators, model the same effective strategies with teachers. Those same strategies that teachers must use with students.

What I Need To Learn More

Articles like Schmoker’s leave me asking myself, “What else do I need to learn to make this a reality?” Obviously, a deeper awareness of John Hattie’s effective instructional strategies. But what about curriculum and assessment design?